Untitled
by helenthebum
Summary: Infection has found it's way to North America, and the future of primates looks grim. But in a small suburban town, an unlikely heroine has the answer. This is her story.M rating for language, graphic violence, and more... hah
1. The Awakening

PART ONE

I woke up with a start. Immediately after I sat up from my sleep, I began to feel dizzy. Blinking my eyes and taking deep, slow breaths, I came to realize that I was sitting on a bench in the front lobby of the New Canaan Town Hall. The air was musty and aside from my breathing and the faint noise of birds chirping and wind blowing outside the building, all was silent inside. I stood up to find that I wasn't wearing any shoes and my feet were covered in dirt and what looked like dried blood. _Why can't I remember what I'm doing here? Where are my shoes? Where is my shirt, for that matter? Why do I look like I survived the apocalypse?_

Discombobulated and self-conscious, how any girl would feel without a shirt on, I started to move instinctively towards the back exit of the building. Upon opening the door to the meeting hall, I was blinded by the unexpected brightness of the room. Sheilding my eyes, I saw that outside it was a cloudless day, and probably warm. Looking around the room, I saw a discarded grey button-down shirt and put it on, not caring it was about ten sizes too large. I continued through the hall and to the exit, where, once outside, I was smacked in the face by the intense New England humidity that sticks to the skin like a burr.

_Wait a second,_ I thought, staring at the empty parking lot in front of me. _Why is everything so quiet? Where are all the people? Why am **I** still here?_

I turned around and walked back inside, and out the entrance door. As I ran down the steps I tripped and stumbled the rest of my way to the bottom of the staircase.

Pumped on adrenaline, I jumped the up from the ground and bolted towards Main Street into the empty middle of the road. I looked all around me but there was nobody in sight; abandoned cars, empty stores, empty sidewalks... _I am in Hell._ "Is there anybody here?!" I shouted, only to recieve the faint echo of my voice against the buildings as a reply.

I started walking down the road towards Elm Street, catching my breath and trying to figure out what was going on. Every few yards I would pause to shout "Hello!?" but after several yards it hurt to speak and I gave up. I kept walking past Elm Street, past the Mobil parking lot, and across the street and towards the library.

I went up the stairs to the back door and stepped inside. "Hello?" I took a breath. "Is anybody in here?"

There was no answer and I walked back outside. _I need a cigarette_. I walked up to the Gulf station, saw it was empty, went behind the counter and grabbed a pack of Marlboro Lights. On my way out I took a Lemon Snapple from the refrigerator and put a lighter in my pocket. _Sorry, Sal._ I thought regretfully to myself.

Once outside, I sat on the curb and began to chug down the snapple, surprising myself at the volume of liquid I was sucking down. I emptied the bottle and stood it on the curb next to me. I tried to make sense of my situation as I lit a cigarette. _Maybe this is just a whacked-out acid trip. Maybe I'm really just watching this really bad horror movie at my house and I'm so trashed that I think I'm experiencing it. That can happen, right?_

_What the fuck. Who am I kidding? I'd at least feel like I was sitting on a couch or something. I'm definately smoking a cigarette in the middle of a fucking empty town that I just took from the gas station... man, what the fuck am I supposed to do? What the fuck is going on!? Jesus-fucking-Christ, I don't believe this shit!!_

Annoyed that I still couldn't remember anything about what happened before I woke up, I picked up my cigarettes, stood up, and started walking up the road towards the church, figuring there has to be someone there. I lit up another cigarette as I reached the parking lot, and because I no longer gave a shit, I didn't bother putting it out to walk inside.

As I opened the door, a smell unlike anything I could describe completely overtook me. I thought I was going to vomit and I debated bolting. Instead, I took a drag and held my breath, then I continued forward. Further inside the building, I was astounded at what I saw. Lying on the benches in front of me were rows and rows and rows of bodies and bodies and bodies. _What the fuck?_

I dared to investigate. I took another deep breath of air and nearly vomited again at the smell, but I couldn't turn back now. Lifeless women, children, men; husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, family, friends - all of them dead. And they were definately dead. _But how did they die? What the fuck was it that killed all these people? How did they die and I didn't? What the fuck is going on here!? Why is this happening to me?! What did I do to deserve this shit?!_

Jesus Christ, "our savior", hung from the ceiling, still nailed to the cross. I nodded at him indifferently and walked down the aisle, stepping over corpses as I headed to the pulpit. I kept my cigarette close to my face so I could inhale smoke rather than the musty, confined stench of a mass amount of corpses.

"This shit is all sorts of fucked up," I muttered out loud when I reached the pulpit. Even though I didn't raise my voice much at all, I was surprised at how loud it sounded. I acknowledged the nice way my words glided throughout the building, for a brief moment materially pleased with the acoustics. Then I realized where I was and the creeping grin on my face dissapeared. Looking out at the benches surrounding me, all full of people who were dead, I felt empty. _All these people came here, inside this church, to find safety... all they got was death. And it looks like death hurt like a bitch._

I didn't know what to do, so I just smoked my cigarette and stared. _How ironic,_ I thought, _that I, a firm non-believer, am the one person in this building of the devout who is alive. _I started to direct my thoughts to the dead. _I am sorry that your prayers did not save you. I am sorry that there was no god to answer your pleas for an answer. I'm sorry you didn't find out until it was too late._

"Peace." I said outloud, this time in a fairly raised voice, and stepped away from the pulpit, aiming to head back outside and see if I could find a live person.

Then I heard something behind me. I turned around to see an alter boy, pale, boney, and otherwise dead-looking if not for his movement, crawling towards me, grunting. I stepped back, startled. Alter Boy kept moving closer, more awkward than usual for somebody on all fours, his arms bent, his body twisted, and his balance uneven. Then he jumped up and lunged himself towards me. I screamed and backed up. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was mangled somehow - it looked as if his face was made of of playdough rather than skin and bones and blood. He took another leap at me, his hands reaching out to grab me. "The fuck are you doing?!" I shouted, trying to push him away, finally resorting to shoving the burning end of my cigarette into his eye. Alter boy faltered backwards, screaming, while I, trying not to throw up, ran towards the exit faster than I have ever ran before, leaping over outsprawled corpses with the grace of a champion trackee.

As I got closer to the doorway I came in, though, I heard more grunting and I made the mistake of looking behind me. People that I assumed dead began to rise from the benches and move towards me. No longer feeling sorry for the inhabitants of the church, I bolted through the entrance hall and out the door and didn't stop running until I got to the train station. My lungs felt like they were going to collapse on me and my heart was pounding like crazy. I thanked goodness for all the callus on my feet that made being barefoot relatively bearable. But I had absolutely no drive left to run any further, though I knew I'd soon have to.

_Shit._ I thought, leaning on a mailbox and pant, pant, panting. I looked around the parking lot and then out towards the road coming from the church. I saw the decomposing maniacs hustling towards me, with greater speed than I expected or wished them to have. _Shit._

I knew that there was no way I could outrun those Things any further. I ran anyway, but I heard them gaining on me anyway. When I reached Starbucks, I knew I was done for. Then, I heard gunshots. _No, not gunshots - that's fire! Who the fuck has a flamethrower in New Canaan?_

"Get down!" shouts a male's voice, before shooting off another rocket.

Once again confused, but not in the mood to have come this far only to die from rocket-fire, I jumped underneath a table. I watched as a guy and a girl, both in their twenties, chucked grenades and other things at the Things.

"Come on!" the guy shouted at me, I guess taking the oppertunity to bolt.

I sat there underneath the table. _This guy's gotta be fuckin' kidding me._

"Come on!" the girl shouted as well. The two of them began to run up the hill and I knew they ultimately didn't give a shit if I came with them or not.

_Jesus-fucking-Christ._ I thought, then started to run after them.


	2. The Cave

PART TWO

_Oh man, I don't believe this shit. I don't think I've run so fast in my fucking life. I dont even know what the fuck it is I'm running for! Goddamnit. If only I could remember what the fuck was going on when I passed out... how the fuck long was I out for?_

_Geez, I think I'm dying. This is it. I'm on so many drugs I'm hallucinating like crazy and I'm probably running straight off a fucking cliff... wait, there aren't any cliffs in New Canaan._

_Whoa, where the fuck are they going? Woods? Are they nutts? Fuck, they're probably the ones who know what they're doing. They probably know what is going on. Jesus, how much farther do we have to go?_

_Are those things still chasing us? Fucking A, I better not look behind me. What the hell is **wrong** with those people, though? I could have sworn they were fucking dead. I know what fucking dead people fucking look like, and those fucking people were fucking dead!_

_Maybe I am dead and there really is a God, and this is Hell, and I'm going to be running from scary Things all eternity._

_Oh, slick, they're slowing down._

I opened my mouth to start asking questions but the guy shushed me. I couldn't get enough air to speak anyway.

"Follow Jess," the guy whispered to me. "I'll be right behind you."

I followed Jess around a huge cluster of rocks. I could see behind me that the guy was watching behind us, ready to fire if the things were still on our tail. Soon Jess stopped walking and began to climb the rock face._ Great,_ I thought to myself. _I finally catch my breath and now it's time for **more** strenuous activity._

Luckily, the climb was relatively simple. Half-way up the rock face, I followed Jess into a cave.

_Random._

_Holy crap it's dark in here... how do I know if I'm still following her?_

_Whoa..._

I felt like I stumbled into an alternate direction. Light was pouring into the center of this cave, centering on a clear blue pool of water. The cave was several feet high, and just as wide. In the corner of the cave was a dimming fire, next to which were canned foods and frying pans. The hole on the top of ceiling had a fishing net underneath it. In another corner were four matresses and a clump of blankets.

_Are there more people? How long did it take for them to make this? Jesus Christ, how long was I out for?_

I stared at my new surroundings in awe for at least five minutes. When I finally felt relaxed, I looked at Jess and saw she was watching me. I didn't know what to say. "Uhhh, nice place you've got here."

_Great. Way to start a conversation with someone who saved your life, Caryn._

Jess nodded, looking both confused and sympathetic. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"You're out of shape."

_Nice to meet you too, Jess._ "Yeah, well..."

She looked at me, I guess waiting for me to tell her why I wasn't buff and butch.

I shrugged, hoping that would be a sufficient replacement for my saying that I was not interested in staying in shape and have never been able to run well.

"You are going to regret it." she said.

_Fuck this. You are not telling me what I will and won't be regretting. I don't even know what the fuck is going on here. This isn't fair! I want some fucking answers!_

I took a breath. "Listen. I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Am I dead?"

Jess looked at me, confused.

"Well?"

"You mean you don't know what just happened back there? Where the hell have you been for the past month?"

"Two months!?" _Two months!!??_ "What do you mean two months!?"

"What? Where the hell have you been?"

"Well, fuck, I don't know! All I know is I woke up this morning looking like I survived the apocalypse lying on a bench in a deserted town hall building. This has been a fucked up day."

_Jesus, that wasn't even the half of it. She thinks I'm pulling her leg._

She stared at me. "You really mean to tell me that you don't know what has been going on for two months?"

_Duh. Am I going to have to spell it out for you? Man I can't believe it... was I really out cold for two months?_

"Shit. Okay. Do you remember hearing about the quarentine of the U.K.?"

_Quarentine of the U.K.? What the hell for?_

"Oh boy. Okay. I'll just tell this to you straight up, alright?"

_Please, tell me **something**_.

"There is an infection, contageous through blood and saliva - the same way AIDS is contageous. Except this virus - they called it 'Rage' - this virus makes a person turn into a canibalistic psycho, right? You get infected with this virus and you become raged. This killing machine."

_Ebola virus meets rabies?_ "Is there a cure?"

"Whatever it is, it hasn't been found. And right now people are more concerned with preventing the spread of it than looking for the cure."

"So, how is it prevented?"

"Ultimately it's not. The U.K. was quarentined about a month and a half ago when these dumbasses from a type of ALF group went to free infected monkies from a laboratory. To cut a long story short, the infection spread throughout the country and it had to be cut off from the rest of the world. But somehow, the infection was brought over to America. Who knows, by now it could be everywhere. It's been 28 days exactly since things here got fucked up like this. But me and Tim and Josh and Madelyn - we were prepared."

I nodded, and then dared to think out loud. "Man, I could use a joint right now."

"Oh Jesus, you're not a little stoner shit, are you?"

_Oh boy._ "Uhh, I'm not a little shit, no."

"Lay off the girl," said a guy's voice from behind me. I turned around and it was a different guy from the one who was with Jess and I. "I'm Tim." he said, not offering to shake my hand in greeting. "You've met Jess. Josh was with you earlier, he's at the opening right now, on watch."

"Speaking of watch," Jess started. "Where the fuck is Madelyn? She was supposed to be there when Josh and I came back. And you know you shouldn't be off anywhere alone, Tim."

Tim nodded. "I know. I woke up after you and Josh left and went to see if she wanted something to eat and she wasn't there. I went to look for her."

"That was stupid."

"Shut up, Jess. She would have done the same for me."

"Well then she's stupid, too."

_This is boring._

Tim walked over to the firepit and perused through cans. Jess went over to the mattresses and lay down. I was still sitting next to the entrance._ This is really boring. I want some drugs._


End file.
